Ealy modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question has long been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association.

In July 2011, an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center announced that the human X chromosome originated from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, which confirmed recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," said Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East.

Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. "In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," added Labuda.

Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.

"There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals," said Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in this study.

"Dr. Labuda and his colleagues were the first to identify a genetic variation in non-Africans that was likely to have come from an archaic population. This was done entirely without the Neanderthal genome sequence, but in light of the Neanderthal sequence, it is now clear that they were absolutely right!" adds Dr. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, one of the principal researchers in the Neanderthal genome project.

"Variability is very important for long-term survival of a species," concluded Labuda. "Every addition to the genome can be enriching."

Thank you Richard Williams for responding first that "a small piece of this chromosome in some people might have originated from Neanderthals." I re-read this article several times and I was absolutely shocked that anyone would make such an absurd and basically racist claim that "that the human X chromosome... is found exclusively in people outside Africa". THIS IS HORRIBLE SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION and I really hope that the author of this article was only syntactically in error.

IF we all came from Africa, then why aren't the Neanderthals black and why
isn't the world population black? It's is highly dubious that modern man
came from Africa, with no artifacts to prove it, but a few bones. I think
we came from the Middle East like Iran; where history goes back thousands
of years and many, many artifacts, can be found. History does not leave
a blank trail behind the footsteps of man.

@dr burke said: "It's [sic] is highly dubious that modern man
came from Africa, with no artifacts to prove it, but a few bones. I think
we came from the Middle East like Iran; where history goes back thousands
of years and many, many artifacts, can be found. History does not leave
a blank trail behind the footsteps of man."

You'd be surprised how few artifacts a primitive species can leave behind. What I would say is that Africa seems to be the cradle of humanity, while the Middle East seems to be the cradle of human civilization. The "many, many artifacts" found in the middle east are those left by a civilized society.

History may go back thousands of years in Iran, but evolutionary history goes back millions of years in Africa.

The question was asked about why there are not black Neanderthals The question should be where did white people come from:
http://www.albinism.org/publications/what_is_albinism.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728.html

Looking at history, the least fertile peoples of the world when it comes to written languages, science, urbanism or civilisation in general can arguably be placed in Australia & sub-saharan Africa. Wonder if inbreeding between our common ancestor with neanderthals & probably other proto human species of Asia night have something to do with it.

Scientists used modern mitochondrial timing techniques that place our emergence from Africa around after the Riss glaciation in the middle Palaeolithic era. We spread all over the ice free world. Imagine, even during the prehistoric days we were explorers and adventurers. At this period we mated with neanderthals? Nah Neanderthal women had primitieve shaped heads. Maybe it was the other way around, Neanderthals thought human women were hot. So they raped them and got them pregnant.

A lot ow our gens are actually virus gens that have been incorporated into our chromosomes by our own cells in order to become completely immune to thous viral species. Maybe the Neanderthals and other humanoids were simply infected with the same viruses, and their cells developed complete immunity the same way, ...thus the genetic similarities amongst various humanoids. There's no need to postulate interbreeding as the explanation for genetic similarities.

A lot of our genes are actually virus genes that have been incorporated into our chromosomes by our own cells in order to become completely immune to thous viral species. Maybe the Neanderthals and other humanoids were simply infected with the same viruses, and their cells developed complete immunity the same way, ...thus the genetic similarities amongst various humanoids. There's no need to postulate interbreeding as the explanation for genetic similarities.

"announced that the human X chromosome originated from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa"

Who wrote this moronic tripe? Clearly they did not understand the science at all.

"A lot of our genes are actually virus genes that have been incorporated into our chromosomes by our own cells in order to become completely immune to thous [sic] viral species."

We do have many copies of, say reverse transcriptase (RT). However the reason given in this comment is ridiculous. Manufacturing a viral protein does not give you immunity to it; rather, it helps the virus, which doesn't have to encode that protein itself. The reason we have RT genes in our DNA is very simple: retroviruses put them there, and our genetic machinery has disabled rather than removed them.

I have always had a problem believing everyone in the world came out of Africa,it does not meke sense logically. Neanderthals originated at northern latitudes which probably means a lighter skin color than one of african decent. Human ancestors probably started in other regions and not just in one place like Africa. Discounting skin colors ,if you look at features, hair texture and coloring and body build it' seems easy to see there are differences that can't be explaned by a population moving from one area to another. The ice ages may have wiped out a significant part of any human ancestors not living in the tropics,thus most surviving populations were in Africa or Southern asia and India.

@ dr burke
IF we all came from Africa, then why aren't the Neanderthals black and why isn't the world population black?

Here we sum up the typical mind set of the majority of people on this planet today - commenting on matters
they know least about.

Number one, do not create continental identity - all continents formed from the one - we are all one of the same.

Number two, at least study a little physics before thinking!!! what a silly question you pose.
The sun dictates skin colour - if a black man is living in the north pole and has many generations after himself, the skin will turn white over thousands of years. Can your brain not use logic?

If a white man does the same on the equator - his genetics will cause skin to black.

BUT NO PEOPLE - you would all prefer to see race and distinction. This simple mindset leads to wars and animal behaviour.

When the earth went an iceage and peoples migrated to the equatoral regions - all humans on this planet, over 5 or so thousand years , would have turned white - there were no black people so far into the iceage because equatoral temperatures were to cold all over the earth. This is simple logic - forget all this one race and another race garbage.

Human history is of no concern. Human history has written the textbooks we learn from today. Establishing, evermore so, the past. Mathematics is an old symbolic system - when will humans learn to cast off old crap and become informed beings. Learning from people of the past is crazy - 'cuz what if they were wrong?

How hard is this to figure out? Civilization began in South East Africa along the Nile river by a melanated dark people, much like present day africans. At some point a pale albino-type people where expelled from Africa and began to populated the caves of Europe. These people were to be called the Neanderthals. Later, the Melanated people left Africa and came across these albino-neanderthals in Europe. The Africans tried to civilize the Neanderthans in hope of bring them back into civilzation. There was a little cross-breding, but I cant imagine the Africans bred with these pale neanderthals on a regular basis....let's remember that these people were kicked out of Africa for some reason. Let of not pretend that they were exploring or in search of food....they were expelled.